Melania Trump makes rare public appearance, sparks Photoshop theories | indy100

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“Where’s Melania” was trending on Twitter/X this weekend, as critics of US presidential candidate Donald Trump wondered where his wife was during his ‘Get Out the Vote’ rally in South Carolina on Saturday – not least because Trump questioned where the husband of his Republican rival Nikki Haley was during his speech.

It turns out, rather embarrassingly for Trump, Major Michael Haley has been deployed to Djibouti with the National Guard.

Even then, that hasn’t stopped people from making the bizarre claim that another picture of Ms Trump – who stepped away from the public eye last month following the death of her mother – with her husband, was photoshopped.

The snap which was shared on February 6th by the Instagram account Elegant Melania Forever and also featured the model and influencer Noy Tawil in the photo with the Trumps.

When MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski shared the photo to Twitter/X on Tuesday, claiming it was edited to “try and fool people they are together”, others also questioned its legitimacy:

@RonFilipkowski Whoever is Photoshopping Bubba goes a little too far.....he looks plastic.
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@RonFilipkowski The smile on her face while in the presence of her husband is a dead give-away that this is a photoshopped pic.
— (@)

@RonFilipkowski That's not even a good Photoshop image, geeze! Least they could do is try.
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@RonFilipkowski Her left eye is at least 1/4\u201d higher than the right in this obviously doctored/photoshopped photo.
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You can tell it's photoshopped because Malaria is smiling (or taking a page out of Tyra Bank's book "sminarling").
— (@)

Others, meanwhile, criticised Filipkowski for the tweet given Ms Trump’s recent bereavement.

“She is grieving. Let her be in peace,” wrote one.

Another clapped back: “Omg who cares. Her mom died. Jesus.”

It’s not the first time that Ms Trump has been the subject of conspiracy theories, as social media users have long speculated that her relationship with the former Apprentice star is under strain due to cameras capturing her looking disgruntled in her husband’s presence, sharing a brief shoulder rub after a debate between Trump and Biden in 2020, and rejecting his requests to hold hands on several occasions.

Then there were the comments – from Trump saying he doesn’t think Melania would cry if he got shot, to an ex-White House official alleging in a book that Melania wanted to embarrass her husband after the scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels surfaced.

Oh, and then there’s the conspiracy theory that Melania has a body double, which continues to do the rounds several years after the Trumps entered the White House.

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